Synthetic Glycopeptides for the Development of Antitumor Vaccines.

Synthetic Glycopeptides for the Development of Antitumour Vaccines

Glycoproteins of tumour cells often are aberrantly glycosylated. In its tumour-associated form, the epithelial mucin MUC1 carries short saccharide structures such as TN, T, sialyl-TN, and sialyl-T antigens. Due to the incomplete saccharide components, peptide epitopes of the backbone become accessible to the immune system. For the construction of synthetic antitumour vaccines, glycopeptides have been synthesized which contain tumour-associated saccharide antigens and peptide sequences from the tandem repeat portion of MUC1. In the synthesis of these glycopeptides, preformed glycosyl–amino acid building blocks are applied in solution- or solid-phase strategies. Examples are given for the use…